The Rebirth Brass Band will kick off Mardi Gras at a Higher Ground concert on Saturday. / Getty Images for City Harvest

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Here’s what you’ll find in and around Burlington once the bons temps start to rouler.

Beats and beads on Church Street

Noon: The Mardi Gras festivities begin to take root on Church Street in Burlington. Drum mavens Sambatucada and rockers Wolfman Conspiracy make some noise, and the King and Queen of Mardi Gras Contest takes place on the top of Church Street. Oh, and the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus will amuse and entertain with its vaudeville-styled performance. Church Street stores will be selling Mardi Gras beads and masks with proceeds to benefit H.O.P.E. Works in its fight against sexual violence. Then you can show off your beaded bling in the Magic Hat photo booth. Free. 658-2739, www.magichat.net.

The parade marches on

3 p.m.: The big event — so big it’s called the Grand Parade — stretches from the corner of Main Street and South Winooski Avenue down to the lovely, if chilly, Burlington waterfront. Chasing after the beads and sweets being flung from the fantastical floats fluttering by should help to warm you up. The world-music group Toubab Krewe plays an outdoor show on Church Street après-parade. Free. 658-2739, www.magichat.net.

Your Mardi Gras soundtrack

The official Mardi Gras activities should keep you plenty busy, but downtown music venues will make sure there’s never a dull moment Saturday. Several spots are offering Mardi Gras-related sounds throughout the day, including:

• 10 a.m., Red Square opens super-early with music in the main room until 2 p.m. by Wild ManBlues; from 2-7 p.m. by DJ Craig Mitchell; 7:30-10 p.m. by Kat Wright and the Indomitable SoulBand; and 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. by DJ Mashtodon. The “blue room” has music from noon-2 p.m. by DJ Llu; 2-4 p.m. from DJ Crook$; 4-6 p.m. courtesy of Mario Maric; 6-8 p.m. by DJ Robbie J; 8-11 p.m. with DJ ATAK and Con Yay; and 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. with DJ Stavros. 859-8909, redsquarevt.com.

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• 1 p.m., Club Metronome gets off to an early start, too, but that’s fitting when the pre-parade music is coming from a band called Blues for Breakfast, even if the show is closer to lunchtime than breakfast. They’ll take a fast break while the parade is raging and then return to the stage at 4 p.m. Free. Metronome, of course, sticks with its Saturday-night staple at 9 p.m. with DJ Fattie B’s massively popular
Retronome, which, if everyone’s wearing their beads, might set a New Orleans vibe circa 1987. (Think of the Dennis Quaid/Ellen Barkin film “The Big Easy.”) $5 after 10 p.m. 865-4563, www.clubmetronome.com.

• 7 p.m., downstairs from Club Metronome, Nectar’s celebrates Mardi Gras with the New Orleans group Earphunk as well as Shmeeans & the Expanded Consciousness (a side project of the Boston funk group Lettuce), the reggae-punk sounds of Danny Pease and the Regulators and the twosome The Hornitz. $5. 658-4771, www.liveatnectars.com.

• 9 p.m., want to keep the fun going but feeling a little New Orleansed-out? Signal Kitchen, located just off Main Street, has an eclectic New York-by-way-of-Denmark musician named Mikkel Hess, who goes by the stage name Hess Is More. $8-$10. 399-2337, www.signalkitchen.com.